The passive is of course perfectly respectable, and there is no reason to try to avoid it. (To say that it shouldn’t be over-used, or it shouldn’t be used where it is inappropriate, doesn’t distinguish it from any other construction or expression.) It would be quite peculiar for there to be a way of constructing clauses, well known to everyone, that was generally not appropriate for use. If everyone who understood how to use the language well could see that the passive was not fit to be used, its survival down the centuries would be almost inexplicable.